trying not to eat

When he awoke this past Friday morning, Luis was at long last beginning to feel optimistic: after ten weeks of unemployment, he now had less than 24 hours before the start of his new job. Happily (if not drowsily), Luis shuffled to his refrigerator for a bowl of cereal. But on opening the refrigerator he noticed that the light failed to illuminate. He stuck his arm in past the milk and felt that although it was cool, it was certainly not as cold as it ought to have been. Turning to his clock, he had the sickening realization that the power was out. Rushing out into the hallway of the apartment complex—in the hope that there was an actual power outage—he quickly saw that all the lights were on in the hall and that there was a notice taped to his door: “Your gas and/or electric service has been disconnected.”

On the day before, Luis had gone shopping for food. Having had no income for the past ten weeks, he was struggling to furnish his most basic needs. He had received the charitable gift of a $200 gift card to a local grocery store and had spent the whole thing, frugally buying in bulk enough food to last him several weeks, packing his freezer until he began drawing a paycheck.

But now, in the midst of a heat wave with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, not only has Luis lost his air conditioning, but his very sustenance is in jeopardy. In an effort to save his food, Luis—becoming increasingly distressed—borrowed a 10’ extension cord to plug his refrigerator into the hallway of the complex, which required him to push the refrigerator right up against his door in order to reach; but he was told that this was not permitted, that he could face eviction for using the outlet in the hall; he relented.

As of tonight, he sits and waits, trying not to eat so that he doesn’t have to open the refrigerator or freezer doors, desperate to retain whatever cool air might be left.